Monthly Archives: May 2016
Davis announces candidacy for County Council District 3
Pickens — Jimmy Davis has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the District 3 Pickens County Council seat currently held by Randy Crenshaw.
A lifelong resident of Pickens, Davis believes the primary issue that every councilman should be aware of is the economic situation that all citizens are faced with, stagnant wages and rising prices for everything — including food, medical costs and electricity.
“Everyone is being squeezed,” Davis said. “We don’t need the government making it any worse for the residents and businesses who are struggling with this economy. If elected, I’ll fight to make county government more efficient, end any wasteful spending and fight to keep the tax rates down. I also pledge to be a strong voice for the citizens of Pickens County District 3. I’m not a yes man — I am a firm believer that we all need to live within our means, and that includes the government.
“I pledge to also fight against any waste being dumped in our county that could be hazardous or even potentially become hazardous.”
Davis is a political newcomer and believes that he can bring refreshing ideas into the county council, but most of all Davis said he is tired of politicians making promises that can’t be kept just to occupy a seat.
“The promise I can make is that I will be a voice for the people and fight for what the people want and to do what the voters of Pickens County send me there to do, no matter how rich or poor,” Davis said.
Davis added he’s not a career politician — he is an everyday person who lives from payday to payday, and he feels he has the common sense to do the job right.
Davis encourages Distict 3 residents to call him. His cellphone number is (864) 430-3170.
“No private number for me — if elected, I’ll truly be a servant of the public,” he said.
Davis is the son of Jack and Louise Davis of Davis Mulch and the brother of Mitchell Davis, who served as Pickens county coroner from 1988 to 2000. He is married to Marlene Aiken Davis, and he also retired from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office after 25 years of service and has a very knowledgeable background in police work. He also has construction experience, as he was a project manager over a multimillion-dollar construction company until living out of town took much away from his family life.
Career center to host STEM celebration, fundraiser May 19
LIBERTY — A combination celebration and fundraising event for science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs will take place at 6 p.m. May 19 at the Pickens County Career and Technology Center.
The celebration will recognize students who have distinguished themselves in the subject areas of STEM. All of the proceeds will be presented to the School District of Pickens County to assist in Career and Technology Center STEM programs through the acquisition of additional robots, electronics, mechatronic and machine tool equipment, pipe, metal and wire for student learning.
Highlighting the evening will be the naming of the 2016 Pickens County Scholar Technician of the Year. Alliance Pickens executive director Ray Farley said the evening promises to be a memorable one.
“The combined efforts of Alliance Pickens, Pickens County’s existing industry, the School District of Pickens County and the Pickens County Career and Technology Center have created a model that has become the envy of much of the U.S.,” Farley said.
Farley said the Scholar Technician program is a workforce development initiative and economic development tool created to encourage young people to pursue technical careers. The program is designed to encourage students to consider STEM manufacturing technical careers and to create a highly skilled, technical trained workforce that would both support existing companies and attract top-notch manufacturing firms to Pickens County.
In this program, students are encouraged to apply STEM principles in solving problems with their minds and their hands and the Scholar Technician is the student who augments traditional classroom learning with practical hands-on learning. In doing so, they are able to develop the skills required in today’s STEM manufacturing environment.
The Scholar Technician program exposes students from elementary through high school to applied technical training. The initiative encourages students to excel in technical career activities by promoting technically skilled students in the same way many communities promote their athletically skilled students.
Farley said the Scholar Technician of the Year award recognizes the outstanding achievements and year-round efforts made by one of many students in Pickens County.
Anyone with questions about the program or interested in purchasing tickets for the event should contact Melissa Carlson at (864) 898-1500 or mcarlson@alliancepickens.com.
Bowling event planned to benefit Pickens County Humane Society
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — An upcoming fundraiser for the Pickens County Humane Society aims to rack up a big win for the shelter and its animals.
PCHS board member Jennifer Kolesar said the shelter recently learned that Tri-City Lanes in Easley would like to host a fundraiser for the Humane Society.
That led to the upcoming Pins for Pets Bowl-A-Thon fundraiser.
The event is slated for 1:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, June 11, at Tri-City Lanes.
Teams of four can register for $60, Kolesar said.
“That includes their shoe rental and the lane” she said.
Teams will be vying for first, second and third prizes.
“They’ll also have random prizes throughout,” Kolesar said. “Like ‘the next person who gets a strike’ gets a prize, people who knock over a special gold pin get a prize, that sort of thing.”
Food plates will be available for purchase as well, probably for around $5 a plate.
“All of the proceeds will go to the shelter, and all of the food money will go to the shelter,” Kolesar said.
Register your team by dropping by Tri-City Lanes or the Pickens County Humane Society, located at 500 Five Forks in Liberty.
If you’d prefer to register online, you’ll find a link to the EventBrite registration page by visiting the Pickens County Humane Society’s Facebook page.
“There’s only 20 lanes,” Kolesar said. “We’re taking registrations until the 20 lanes are full. Hopefully we’ll run out of lanes.”
Donations of items for the Pickens County Humane Society will also be collected during the Pins for Pets fundraiser.
Items needed include puppy and kitten food, blankets, pet beds, cat litter, cedar shavings, cleaning supplies and office supplies
The Pickens County Humane Society is the only animal shelter facility in Pickens County. Although it receives about $70,000 in funding from the county, it is not a county-run facility, and relies on the bulk of its funding from fundraisers and supporters.
The Humane Society can hold about 120 animals at a time and usually stays at or near full capacity all year round. It sees between 1,000 and 2,000 animals a year.
Humane Society officials hope to build a “cat cottage,” which will move its feline population into a new space, further away from the dogs. That renovation is estimated to cost $30,000.
Mini Relay for Life event planned Monday in Easley
Kerry Gilstrap/Courier
Above, Amy Hand, Tricia Youngblood and Loren Parnell are pictured at the Relay for Life event on April 30 at Easley High School. At left, cancer survivor Emily Stansell was named Miss Supreme at the Relay for Life Pageant at the event before it was rained out.
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — Relay for Life participants planned to gather at Easley High School on April 30 to raise money for cancer research, honor those fighting cancer and remember those the disease has taken from us too soon.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.
A sudden, intense storm blew through the area that Saturday afternoon, sending Relay tents flying and turning the field at Easley High School into a lagoon.
As the storm raged on, safety concerns forced the cancellation of Relay for Life by 5 p.m. that afternoon.
But you can’t keep a good group down.
A new event is slated for 7-9 p.m. Monday, May 16, at the track at Easley High School.
Cancer survivors will kick off the event with a lap around the track. The Survivors Lap traditionally starts every Relay for Life.
A lap for caregivers will also be held during the event.
Then, Relay for Life teams will take a lap around the track.
Be sure to stay for the luminary service. All movement on the track comes to an end as special luminaria tribute bags are lit around the track. It’s one of the most moving moments of any Relay for Life event.
The Pickens County Relay for Life’s fundraising goal is $75,000. According to website figures, local teams have raised more than $60,000 so far.
For more information on the local Relay for Life effort, visit relayforlife.org/pickenssc or search “Relay for Life of Pickens County SC” on Facebook.
In memoriam
Sweetheart Marisa — Happy 74th anniversary of your birth April 28, 1942, and as of June 20, 2014, your second year in heaven as one of God’s angels. We love and miss you.
From your husband, Joe, your children, Michelle, Anthony, Paul, and all your grandchildren. R.I.P.
Getting out from under
It is such a simple word. Why are we afraid to use it? The word is no. It has always been challenging for some of us to use the word in certain situations. Sometimes we get overextended and wracked with guilt because we hate to turn down requests for help.
There are so many worthy organizations out there who need help. Just as it’s not possible to donate money to everyone, it is not possible to donate time to everyone.
Volunteering for worthy causes is a good thing, but how many worthy causes can you reasonably give time to without neglecting your family or yourself?
That’s when it’s time to sit down and give a long, hard look at time management and personal responsibility.
We all want to help where we can. But we know we can’t help everybody. So how do we decide?
Remember every time you take on one more responsibility, you are taking time away from something else in your life.
So saying yes to more and more requests for help means saying no to other things in your life, because the truth is, we can’t do it all.
I’m not superwoman. None of us are. But we’re taught to think we should be.
Are we doing something for an organization that is a feel-good project, or is it a do-good project? Are we agreeing to do something out of a sense of obligation or guilt? Are we taking on responsibility for a task someone else is supposed to be doing?
Each case is different, but I’ve decided it’s important to make my time count when I volunteer. How can I be most effective?
There are certain things to guard against. We can all be manipulated, flattered or guilted into taking on more responsibility.
It’s important to be aware. Here are some red flags:
“Oh, you always do such a wonderful job. We just can’t do it as well. Won’t you please do this one little thing? We’d appreciate it so much.”
This is the flattery card.
“I guess we’ll just have to discontinue the program if you can’t do this.”
“All the other mothers are doing it.”
Both of these are the guilt card.
“I agreed to do it, but something has come up and I just can’t. Would you be a sweetie and take over for me?”
This is the manipulation card.
All of these ring warning bells for me. The only legitimate reason for taking on volunteer duties is because you feel called to do it and are able to commit time to it.
The very word volunteer means that you are a person who is willing and able to take on responsibility and will honor that commitment.
If you feel guilted, flattered or manipulated into donning something, it has no meaning and just keeps you exhausted and unfulfilled.
So, the next time someone pressures you to do something you really don’t feel called to do, just say no. You don’t have to make excuses or explain your reasons. Just say no. Such a simple word that opens the door to freedom.
Preparing to say goodbye
This coming Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., everyone who ever attended or was faculty or staff or parent or neighbor or just a well-wisher of Holly Springs Elementary School is invited to come join a gathering to say goodbye. By the Pickens County School Board’s decree, the cheerful and highly effective little school will pass away, in the best of health, when the doors close behind the current student crop this spring.
Its sister school, A.R. Lewis Elementary, also being closed in the prime of life, for similar reasons (whatever, in fact, those reasons really are) held its farewell exercises on May 7. Thus we will add two more vacant school buildings to the sad list of darkened, rotting structures in the county, and several more school buses to the highways every day. This, we are told, is to save money during a financial crisis — which the school board’s finance expert has denied exists.
And this, despite the fact that the taxpayers will still be re-paying — until 2032 — a $6 million debt incurred a few years ago to repair and upgrade these very buildings where dust and cobwebs soon will prevail. Meanwhile, several hundred kids, including about 20 K-4s, will get to spend another couple of hours daily on a school bus, on the road.
Why this? Mr. Phil Bowers, the board member who seemed most determined that these two schools be closed, responded at one of those recent board meetings where the public was not allowed to talk. He felt like he was cheating the taxpayers, he said, by permitting these small schools to operate when some of their classes numbered fewer than a “standard” 21.5 students. (Since no one in the audience was permitted to respond, faculty present could not tell him that some classes had up to 28 or more students — and that the 13-member class that kept popping up as an example of dreadful waste possibly was a special-needs class, where only fewer could be taught to best effect.
But that 21.5-student count rule, the earnest Mr. Bowers adamantly clung to, while as a parent, the writer cringed to consider how that five-tenths of a student might be delivered to each classroom with only 21. Brian Swords, in explaining his own stand in “getting this over with,” implied that right or wrong, the board had voted several months ago to close these schools, and it was time to do it. Kind of like, “Yeah, we know now this guy is not guilty, and the killer’s still at large — but the jury said to hang him, so on with it!”
There is so much more that should be said, about the reasoning of this board. We have suffered through this current term at the hands of some of the most challenged persons one can imagine setting public policy. Ruinous decisions have been made. And how could we anticipate such a thing, at the time of elections? Especially when at least half the seat-winners hold advanced college degrees?
What is agonizingly lacking here is the recourse to correct a problem when it jumps up and bites us. Several years ago, an elected official was a suspect in some jail-able crime. What were we to do, if the miscreant actually went to the pen? The responsible official in Columbia replied, “You can vote him out of office next time around.”
We have got to do something, friends and neighbors. We have been told, “THEY are in charge, and there’s nothing YOU can do,” till we have forgotten that America is supposed to be altogether different. We cannot go to the polls, and designate someone else to be totally responsible for all civic and moral issues — with us off the hook. We have got to pay attention. Anyone who has gone to a recent school board meeting, and observed the behavior of the four members who pushed these school closings — while the two others tried, aghast, to stop them — will know there is something terribly wrong. Something does not work.
Sen. Larry Martin is working on some remedial legislation, to set up some recourse. We need to consult him about it, and help however we can. In the end, we ARE responsible.
Meanwhile, we can gather on Saturday, at Holly Springs School, hear superb music from kids who learned to pick and fiddle at Holly Springs, eat barbecue, play on the school yard, and hear a wondrous presentation by Dennis and Jane Chastain on a school history that reaches back into the 1880s.
And after that, we can resolve to pay attention.
Award-winning author and journalist Dot Jackson is a co-founder of the Pickens-based Birchwood Center for Arts and Folklife.
Courier Obituaries 5-11-16
Obituaries
The Pickens County Courier runs in-county obituaries free of charge. Please ask your funeral home about this service.
Holly Springs schools have served community for more than 100 years
Holly Springs Elementary School art teacher Alston Beckman created this special pen-and-ink drawing of the 1922 school as it once was. Prints of the drawing will be available at a celebration of the school’s history this Saturday at Holly Springs.
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — The upcoming closure of Holly Springs Elementary School will mark a sad end for a school that has linked a community for generations. The closing of the school will bring an end to a school and a tradition that is much older than many people may realize.
Dennis and Jane Chastain have been researching the history of the school — both the existing school building and its earlier incarnation — and have learned that the Holly Springs School story begins much earlier than many people realize.
Many people believe the school was started in 1926, but according to the Chastains, the Holly Springs story begins some 45 years earlier.
“All the published histories of Holly Springs Elementary indicated that the school started in 1926 on the knoll behind where the Holly Springs Grocery is now,” Dennis said. “The problem was that I knew that there had been a Holly Springs school long before that, but there was no documentation of it.”
While clearing the lot to build the Holly Springs Fire Department many years ago, a milled stepping stone was found. Chastain’s cousin, Vic Chastain, said the stone was from the first Holly Springs school built sometime in the 1800s.
Dennis contacted Anne Sheriff at the Faith Clayton Genealogy Room at the Southern Wesleyan University library.
“She said she would pull everything she had on old schools and put it on a table for us,” Dennis said. “When we got there several days later, the entire end of the table was piled with huge stacks of file folders and old books. It took me and Jane three trips at about two hours each to work our way through it all.”
But it was well worth the time and effort. Among the stacks of old school documents was a copy of the original charter for the first Holly Springs school. It was built in 1881.
“It was a subscription school, which was about the only kind of school that was available in the late 1800s,” Dennis said. “The way that worked, those who could afford it would pay a subscription for each child for each session.”
School sessions followed the planting seasons.
“We have a copy of John L. Gravely paying $3,” Dennis said. “I imagine that was for one child, for one session.”
Due to the small size of the school, enrollment was probably about a dozen students per session.
When mandatory school attendance was passed, enrollment nearly doubled — so much so that classes had to be held at the nearby Holly Springs Church.
Among the documentation was the original contract for the fellow who had contracted to build the building, along with the exact dimensions and a long list of other specifications.
“The builder was James Burdine, and the building was 18 feet wide and 28 feet long,” Dennis said. “I gotta tell you, this was all pretty exciting. We could now show that Holly Springs school had been in continuous existence in three different locations from 1881 to 2016. That’s 135 years, and I’m betting very few schools in Pickens County have that kind of history.”
The first two teachers at the school were Chastains — Willie and Mary, who were brother and sister.
“They ended up teaching at a number of schools,” Dennis said.
Until finding the records of the 1881 school, the earliest records of the school indicated that it was started in 1926.
Courtesy photo
This photo shows the current Holly Springs Elementary School as it looked when it was opened in its current location in 1954.
“We have a continuous record of a Holly Springs School from 1881-2016,” Dennis said.
“And then it’s going to end,” Jane chimed in. “It breaks my heart.”
Jane Chastain taught kindergarten at Holly Springs Elementary for 31 years.
“I loved every single day that I taught,” she said. “I still volunteer there every week, since I retired five years ago. It’s just that kind of place. It’s the place I want to be.”
Before she retired, Jane taught the children of children she’d taught earlier in her career.
“That just tells you how stable that community is,” she said. “That is a wonderful thing.”
“That school was the core of the Holly Springs community for over a hundred years,” Dennis said. “It’s what linked people in this really sparsely populated area.”
The Chastains’ first research foray led them to find the springs that the school is named after.
“Everything I read said that it was two springs that came together and there was a big holly tree growing between them,” Dennis said.
They went to the Holly Springs Fire Department, which was the site of the old Holly Springs School.
“We just went back in there and found it,” Jane said. “I had wanted to do that for years.”
Dennis believes that the old road students at the original school traveled was actually a segment of the Cherokee Path.
“You can trace that road all the way from right by the school, down across the river and off up toward the mountain,” he said. “A segment of it was later a toll road, called Sassafras Gap Toll Road. When they opened that road up, it was like I-26. There were thousands of people streaming out of western North Carolina into the lower parts of South Carolina and all the way into Charleston.”
Dennis and Jane Chastain’s research into the history of the Holly Springs community led them to the site that lent the area its name. “Everything I read said that it was two springs that came together and there was a big holly tree growing between them,” Dennis said. After a short venture into the woods, the two found the springs and came away with this photo.
The second Holly Springs School was built on a knoll behind what is now Holly Springs Grocery in 1922 — not 1926 as previously believed, Dennis said.
Miss Pearl Chastain was the first teacher at that school, Dennis said.
The school was a one-room building, but a two-teacher school. The school room could be divided, Dennis said, with little kids taught on one side and upper grades on the other.
“It had a wood stove, a well, an outhouse,” Dennis said. “All the modern conveniences.”
Records show that in 1947, the school had of enrollment of about 60.
In 1954, the school moved to its current location. At the time, counties had many local community schools with much smaller enrollments.
“You had a school that was basically limited to how far kids could walk to get to school,” Dennis said.
The state government began an effort to encourage counties to consolidate their small, local schools into larger, more centralized schools.
“There were several country schools that were consolidated to make Ambler (Elementary) and several country schools that were consolidated to make A.R. Lewis (Elementary), just like Holly Springs, about the same time,” Jane said.
“They consolidated 10 different area schools into one to make the Holly Springs building in 1954,” Dennis said.
The closure of the school “doesn’t make sense to anybody,” other than the four board members who voted to close it, Dennis said.
“There’s a lot of bad feelings — and there will be for a long time — about closing that school,” he said.
Before the school is closed, a special celebration is the works.
“We’ll be celebrating the life and legacy of Holly Springs Elementary School,” Jane said.
“We’re certainly not celebrating the closure,” Dennis added.
All former and current Holly Springs Elementary School students and their parents are invited to the celebration.
“Anybody connected with the school, we would love for you to come,” Jane said.
The bash will be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. this Saturday, May 14, at the school. A short PowerPoint history of the school will be presented. There will also be food, music and a bounce house for the kids.
A Holly Springs teacher has created a special pen-and-ink drawing of the 1922 school as it once was. Prints of that drawing will be available for sale at the event.
Current students are helping to put together a time capsule that won’t be buried, but stored at Pickens High School.
“Every child is writing out their memories (of the school) and we’re putting that in there,” Jane said.
Pickens mayor David Owens is expected to proclaim May 14 as Holly Springs School Day.
The school’s slogan for many years has been “The Small School with the Big Heart,” Jane said.
“It’s what you want every school to be,” she said.
“That’s absolutely true,” Dennis said. “That has been more than a school.”
A school located in a tight-knit community such as Holly Springs helps ease first-time students’ fears, the Chastains said, because many of the faces in the school are already familiar to them as members of the community.
“That extra nurturing that those kids got early on — and I’m sure hundreds of them would attest — has made a big difference,” Dennis said. “Some of them are still concerned about how these children from a remote part of the county are going to fare being dumped into these larger schools.”
“It was such a family environment. At our school, everybody knew everybody. The whole school was a family,” Jane said. “It still is.”
Historic Cold Spring Missionary Baptist Church celebrates 146th anniversary
PICKENS — Cold Spring Missionary Baptist Church celebrated its 146th year Anniversary on May 1.
Located on Rosman Highway in Pickens, the church was founded in 1870 under a brush arbor, with the Rev. Andy Gowens serving 20 years as the first pastor.
Under him, a log cabin was built. The Rev. George Earl was the second pastor, and he served for 27 years. The Rev. Baker was pastor for a
